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MONDAY The News  Germany, Europe’s largest economy and the most important — and most reluctant — partner in trying to help Greece forestall a financial meltdown, agreed to lend it up to $30 billion over three years, part of an international bailout package negotiated over the weekend. The European Central Bank said it would accept Greek bonds as collateral regardless of any credit downgrades. Behind the News  The moves cleared up some lingering uncertainty over the bailout and relieved some of the upward pressure on the interest rates Greece had to pay. TUESDAY The News  Public employees began striking in protest against pay and spending cuts proposed by the government of Prime Minister George Papandreou to stave off default, reassure investors and win backing for the bailout. Behind the News  The high cost and low productivity of Greece’s vast public sector, which employs one-third of the labor force and until recently guaranteed jobs for life, were major factors l...

Gulf oil spill could hit your wallet Shipping delays may increase the price of bananas, coffee By HARRY R. WEBER, VICKI SMITH The Associated Press updated  5:56 p.m. PT,   Mon., May 3, 2010 NEW ORLEANS - The calamitous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico isn't just a mess for the people who live or work on the coast. If you drink coffee, eat shrimp, like bananas or plan to buy a new set of tires, you could end up paying more because of the disaster. The slick has forced the shutdown of the gulf's rich fishing grounds and could also spread to the busy shipping lanes at the mouth of the Mississippi River, tying up the cargo vessels that move millions of tons of fruit, rubber, grain, steel and other commodities and raw materials in and out of the nation's interior. Though a total shutdown of the shipping lanes is unlikely, there could be long delays if vessels are forced to wait to have their oil-coated hulls power-washed to avoid contaminating the Mississippi. Some cargo ships m...

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Raining eggs Guards cover Ukraine parliament speaker Volodymr Lytvyn with an umbrella from eggs thrown by opposition lawmakers during ratification of the Black Sea Fleet deal with Russia, in Kiev, Ukraine, on April 27. Ukrainian prosecutors are considering filing charges against parliament members who hurled the eggs and set off smoke bombs in the chamber in protest of the deal. 

Stanford d.school Proves You Really Can Design a Space for Innovation BY   LINDA TISCHLER Mon Apr 26, 2010 "Space matters." That's the mantra at the  Stanford d.school , where students and staffers have spent six years figuring out how to tweak an environment to make it a more fertile breeding ground for ideas. Now they're going to find out if those ideas work. The boxes were unpacked in late March, in time for the start of the university's third quarter. But the official ribbon-cutting on the 40K square foot new building (which houses both the d.school and all other design programs at Stanford) isn't until May 7.  Fast Company  got a sneak preview, and we'll be giving you a guided tour (along with photos, videos and critiques of the space from the students themselves) in the days ahead. We'll go behind the scenes to show how every nook, cranny, and fungible wall system has been smartly designed to maximize collaboration. The school, which is offi...

Kids in Argentina learn to grow their own food By  Brian Byrnes , CNN STORY HIGHLIGHTS Community efforts have reclaimed lots filled with garbage into urban gardens Children's hunger and undernourishment are big problems in Argentina Organizations hope that by teaching children about farming, they can have access to nutritious food BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN)  -- On his knees in the soggy soil, 9-year-old Alexis Ocampo digs deep into the earth, his small gardening rake separating dirt from rocks. "Look, I found a worm!" he shrieks. Towering above is Andrea Girardini, calmly instructing Alexis and the half-dozen other children working to clear spots for new crops. "We can put a squash plant here, and some lettuce over there," says Girardini, a director of Semillas al Viento, a community organization that teaches neighborhood kids practical skills that help them put food on the table. "The children come here and learn how to farm and how to cultivate the...

An anti-government protester waves a flag bearing a portrait of Che Guevara behind a barricade built with bamboo poles and tires in Bangkok on Sunday, April 25. Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Saturday rejected an offer by demonstrators to end weeks of increasingly violent protests in return for early polls. BANGKOK - Security forces and agitated protesters faced off at a major intersection Friday after bloody grenade attacks rattled Thailand's chaotic capital — a scene of tense, weekslong confrontations between die-hard demonstrators and a wavering government. The late-night attacks killed three people and wounded 75, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said. Attackers shot five M-79 grenades from near where anti-government Red Shirt protesters have been encamped and the blasts struck areas where counter-demonstrators have gathered, but Suthep stopped short of directly blaming the Red Shirts for the attack. The mostly rural Red Shirts have been entrenched on ...